Far South Coast teachers participated in industrial action at Pambula Town Hall today, Wednesday May 4, as part of a state-wide 24-hour strike in light of widespread teacher shortages and wage caps.
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Sam Martin, music teacher at Eden Marine High School and representative for NSW Teachers Federation said there was a good turnout of about 60 people.
"The Eden Marine High turnout was particularly strong and it was nice to participate in the state-wide action in our local community," Mr Martin said.
Casual teacher Arati George and Sam Martin both spoke about the changing nature of education and teaching over the last 10 years and the impact on both teachers and students.
"For me personally, it's not about money, it's about ensuring kids are well-supported in classrooms," Mr Martin said.
He said the weekly time allowance of two hours for lesson preparation, administration and family liaison hadn't changed since 1950s, despite the job changing dramatically.
"The one thing I would love more than anything is more time. We are required to document and instil data into the system to justify our jobs, but there is no allowance for that to happen from a time or a funds factor, and that's why we are here," Mr Martin said.
"I am pretty upset the Premier and Education Minister are saying this action is politically motivated - it's not true - we are here because students are going to miss out.
"We are having hard conversations with community members, who say teachers get paid better than anyone, but if our conditions were so amazing, we would be knocking back teachers instead of having shortages."
"Our conditions and wages are not in line. I don't see it as attractive... it is harder and harder for me to walk through the gate with a smile.
"Minds breed on positive thoughts and good energy, if we don't have that happening for teachers, it becomes harder for students too."
The NSW government said public school teacher salaries were competitive with those offered by other state education systems and also said it was working on a number of initiatives to deliver a sustainable supply of quality teachers.
Mr Martin said he doubted this would be the end of the campaign, and that the door for negotiating was always open.
"This is likely the start of something bigger, unless the government take action to fix the problem," Mr Martin said.
The NSW Teachers Federation state executive made a unanimous decision last week to proceed with the strike action.
The Department of Education said in a statement it had repeatedly called on the Federation to "put students first and call off today's industrial action".
The government has indicated its intention to consider wages as part of the budget process which concludes in June.